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Nevada grazing standoff reignites a festering feud

Cliven Bundy’s latter-day Sagebrush Rebellion is a treatise on why ranchers and others guided by traditional Western values so frequently question the legitimacy of federal authority on public lands.

Throw in a federally protected endangered desert tortoise and you’ve got a recipe for standoff.

Bundy, 67, is a Nevada rancher who has been illegally grazing his cattle on federal land for 20 years. He stopped paying grazing fees in 1993 and ignored a Nevada district court ruling that permanently barred him from running his cattle on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Bundy doesn’t recognize the authority of the federal government over public lands — at least in Nevada. He claims that his family has been raising cattle on the land since 1877, before the BLM existed, giving him a preemptive right to use it.

The BLM let Bundy’s activities go until he moved his cattle into a protected habitat for endangered tortoises.

When the BLM began rounding up Bundy’s cattle last week for trespassing, the long-simmering feud came to a head. Armed supporters faced off with federal agents, evoking images of deadly confrontations in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, in the early 1990s.

Fearing bloodshed, the BLM backed off the cattle seizure Saturday, but vowed to press the issue “administratively and judicially.”

“We remain disappointed that Cliven Bundy continues to not comply with the same laws that 16,000 public lands ranchers do every year,” BLM Director Neil Kornze said in a statement.

Bundy later told FoxNews.com: “This is a lot bigger deal than just my cows. It’s a statement for freedom and liberty and the Constitution.”

If the authority of the federal government over public lands is established in the U.S. Constitution, Bundy isn’t buying it.

Meanwhile, the Nevada standoff was an alarming suspension of the rule of law — from actions by both sides.

Demonstrators were confined to a free-speech area in the interest of public safety — a move that perpetuated perceptions of federal thuggery.

Bundy and his supporters put the BLM in an impossible situtation. The Constitution provides a remedy for Bundy’s grievances. Rather than using the independent judiciary to validate his legal claims or turning to his congressional delegation for help, Bundy and his supporters used the threat of force to win a temporary reprieve.

That’s not going have a long-term effect. As we noted earlier, effective challenges to the federal government come through the courts or legislation — never guns. It will be interesting to see how — or if — the federal government reacts. At least it’s learned from past experience. Federal officials didn’t let this escalate to a Ruby Ridge situation. But a real solution to the issue of federal authority is much more problematic.

‘Clive Bundy’s latter-day Sagebrush Rebellion is a treatise on why [scofflaws] and “others [mis]guided by traditional Western values so frequently [but self-servingly] question the legitimacy of federal authority on federal lands”.

At least, the Sentinel impliedly admits that the “lands” in question are “federal lands” – which the BLM is constitutionally empowered to manage for the benefit of the “public” – an inconvenient fact that Bundy disingenuously denies.

“Bundy, 67, is a [wealthy] Nevada rancher who has been illegally grazing his cattle on federal lands for 20 years” – and is therefore a hypocritical “free-loader”.

“He stopped paying grazing fees in 1993” – while 16,000 other fellow-citizen- ranchers grazing cattle on public lands have been routinely paying their annual grazing fees.

Bundy “ignored a Nevada district court ruling that permanently barred him from running his cattle on the land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land management” – so he owes over $1 million to his fellow taxpayers and stands in contempt of the federal court.

Bundy “claims that his family has been raising cattle on the land since 1887, before the BLM existed, giving him a preemptive right to use it”. However:

First, the U.S. Government – not “the BLM” – owns the land, which it acquired from Mexico by the Treat of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Second, Bundy’s “preemptive right” argument was rejected by the Nevada Supreme Court in the 1970s.

Third, Bundy does indeed have a “right to use” federal land – as long as he timely pays the legally established grazing fees and abides by restrictions intended to protect an endangered species – another “power” statutorily conveyed to the federal government under the Endangered Species Act (which also protects Western Slope water).

By Jerry Sanders - Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Bundy’s agreement/lease dates back to the 1800’s. His agreement/lease is NOT with the federal government. 86% of Nevada is owned/controlled by the federal government. We may have saved 4 Americans had hillary mustered as much federal force to help our comrades in Benghazi.

By Bill Hugenberg - Saturday, April 26, 2014

LAS VEGAS—It has been widely reported that Cliven Bundy’s family claims to have ranched in the Bunkerville area since the 1870s even though a federal judge held a different view of Bundy’s history.
Bundy repeated a similar claim Thursday when he told TheBlaze website: “My family has preemptive, adjudicated livestock water rights filed with the state of Nevada. They were established in 1877 when the first pioneers entered the valley. Among those first pioneers were my grandparents from my mother’s side. My father either bought or inherited his Nevada state livestock water rights and I, in turn, have done the same.”
Contrast that with the 1998 opinion from U.S. District Judge Johnnie Rawlinson in a case where it was determined Bundy wouldn’t be allowed to use federal land for his cattle because of failure to pay grazing fees to the Bureau of Land Management. Rawlinson wrote that it wasn’t until roughly 1954 that “Bundy or his father or both have grazed livestock on public lands owned by the United States and administered by the BLM.”
Clark County Recorder documents show the 160-acre Bunkerville ranch Bundy calls home was purchased by his parents, David and Bodel Bundy, from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt on Jan. 5, 1948. The purchase included the transfer to the Bundys of certain water rights, including water from the nearby Virgin River. Cliven Bundy was born in 1946.